Through the launch of Aptamus, OSG is at the forefront of Florida’s carbon capture activities 

Originally established in 1948, Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc. (OSG) was incorporated in 1969 and is now based in Tampa, Florida. It is a leading provider of energy transportation services, delivering crude oil, petroleum products, and renewable fuels on trade routes spanning all three coasts of the US and across the world. The company owns and operates a well-maintained fleet of 21 tank vessels registered in the US and is well recognized as a preferred cargo carrier of major oil companies, refiners, and traders. 

Having navigated multiple shipping cycles and several industry changes, OSG strives to provide consistently safe, efficient, and reliable energy transportation. In recent years, the business has embraced sustainable practices to dramatically reduce carbon emissions. Exemplifying its commitment to securing a sustainable energy future, the company’s latest venture is the creation of Aptamus Carbon Solutions (Aptamus), a wholly owned subsidiary of OSG that is developing marine carbon transport and storage solutions. Aptamus will provide large CO2 emitters in Florida with a cost-effective solution for transporting captured carbon to proven sequestration sites in other states. Because Florida is without confirmed local safe sequestration sites, Aptamus’ facilities are therefore necessary to provide temporary storage, liquefaction, and transportation of captured carbon in specifically designed LCO2 vessels to safe, long-term sequestration locations. 

Jeffrey Ross Williams, President, and Kent Merrill, Vice President of Marine Projects, join us to elaborate on both OSG and Aptamus. “OSG has been moving cargo since 1948, and specializes in transporting liquid bulk commodities, predominantly crude oil and refined petroleum products, as well as some renewable fuels,” Jeffrey opens. “We are a proud Jones Act company with a focus on deep water transport in the US, providing petroleum energy products to ports on all coasts of the US from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. 

“OSG’s CEO, Sam Norton, is an innovative leader who is always thinking about the company’s next phase of growth. Several years ago, Sam saw the energy industry moving towards new fuels and technologies aimed at reducing carbon emissions. With a focus on moving liquid bulk commodities, he took the opportunity to see what direction the energy industry and the broader global society was going in to identify new potential business opportunities. The company devoted significant efforts to research new fuels and products, like hydrogen, methanol, and ammonia, and technologies like carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). 

Working in partnership 

“OSG saw a lot of public and private investment, and substantial technology and infrastructure development, in the US and around the world, in CCS in particular. We formed Aptamus to concentrate on carbon capture, sequestration, and the transportation of liquified CO2,” Jeffrey states. “With a great reputation and strong heritage under the OSG brand for moving liquid bulk commodities, we settled on the transportation segment of the emerging CCS market. Large, stranded emitters, such as power generating plants that are not likely to have access to any long-distance CO2 pipeline or nearby sequestration facility, were identified as the prime customers for this initiative. In fact, virtually the entire state of Florida is considered stranded. As the third highest CO2 emitting state in the US with a very sensitive ecosystem, a valued tourism economy, and a case history of increasingly more severe and frequent destructive weather events and flooding, Florida is a high value location for the provision of CO2 transport services that Aptamus is pursuing. However, when we realized no other company was engaged in developing a loading terminal for CO2 at a Florida port, we decided to do it ourselves. This led us to venture into designing a loading terminal facility, a first-of-its-kind storage and liquefaction facility for captured CO2 at Port Tampa Bay.” 

Located on the West Coast of Florida, the Tampa Regional Intermodal Carbon Hub (T-RICH) is intended to be the principal gateway for intermediate storage of captured CO2 from emitters across the state. . Aptamus has entered into an agreement with Aker Solutions for the front end engineering and design of a temporary storage and liquefication processing terminal. When complete, the proposed hub will be capable of receiving, storing, and processing an impressive two million metric tons of CO2 per year, for permanent sequestration on and offshore in the northern Gulf of Mexico region. “Port Tampa Bay is a terrific partner assisting us with the design of the T-RICH loading terminal, and it is less than a three-day sail to a discharge terminal on the northern Gulf Coast in Texas or Louisiana where permanent sequestration sites are now being developed and pipeline infrastructure already exists.” 

“Aptamus is an exciting transition for OSG as it looks to diversify from transporting just petroleum and crude products,” Kent Merrill affirms. “After managing various large engineering projects and new oil tanker construction at OSG for 18 years, I’m now leading carbon-related projects including engineering studies, design development, working with regulatory bodies, and liaising with the US Department of Energy which is providing substantial funding for some projects. I’m currently overseeing the design and potential construction of CO2 carriers and developing the associated land-based facilities at which they will load and unload, including T-RICH. 

Future potential 

“Our intent is for T-RICH to collect CO2 captured from major emitters, first within the Tampa region, where more than 30 million metric tons of CO2 is emitted per year from industrial emitters alone, and then we’ll expand to a wider area across the state. We will then transport liquified CO2 over any navigable waterway to locations with the necessary infrastructure and regulatory support for permanent underground storage. We’ve been building relationships over the last couple of years to identify and design a network of discharge storage facilities ahead of time. We’ve partnered with a discharge terminal and storage facility on the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, for instance, which is adjacent to existing CO2 infrastructure, both pipelines and sequestration sites. Moreover, we’ve already identified that T-RICH’s potential future throughput is as much as eight million metric tons per year given the available land area at the site.” 

Aptamus is also exploring onboard carbon capture and storage (OCCS) for its commercial tankers. “We’ve recently completed a study for the US Maritime Administration to identify what processes we’d need to undertake to retrofit carbon capture equipment into existing tankers,” Jeffrey explains. “We’re also looking at alternative fuels to ensure we’re embracing greener initiatives to steer the company to a more sustainable future, and to stay ahead of the International Maritime Organization’s emission reduction requirements.” 

Investment growth 

Kent elaborates on the process behind designing and developing these CO2 carrying vessels. “We initially set the target capacity for the vessels at 20,000 tons, as we wanted to drive maximum value and cost effectiveness,” he says. “We now have structural engineering drawings and cargo handling documents that have been granted an Approval in Principle (AiP) by the American Bureau of Shipping for our articulated tug and barge system. We’re focusing on an ATB vessel format because they have been very popular in transporting petroleum products in cross-Gulf trades for decades, where they offer several advantages over self-propelled tankers. One such advantage is that the tug could more easily be replaced with a zero-emissions tug once the necessary technology matures. It’s not so easy to replace the engine room of a self-propelled tanker” 

To end our conversation, Jeff turns his attention to what the future holds for OSG and Aptamus. “We anticipate many opportunities around alternative fuels to emerge over the next ten years, with the goal of getting as close to zero emissions as possible,” he shares. “I’m sure there will be breakthroughs in technology in the coming years, and we’ll start to make real progress on our onboard carbon capture development, providing shipping companies with different options to reduce emissions. While there may be some domestic political challenges in the near term, CCS is here to stay, and there’s a lot of growth in private sector investment to sustain and expand CCS infrastructure, as well as to fund more research and development. Moreover, there is a rapidly expanding social acceptance of CCS which will help the power generation industry meet the enormous projected increase in electricity demand over the next 20 years. While we are big fans of renewable energy sources, this future demand growth cannot be met by solar and wind alone. Natural gas power plants will need to continue, and CCS will allow the production of clean power while the power companies continue to integrate renewables into their networks.” 

Exciting times 

“There is a growing public awareness of all aspects of the energy supply chain and its current inability to meet future demand from renewables alone. People, business leaders, and our social and political institutions, are increasingly understanding that carbon emission reduction helps improve public health, grow local economies through job creation and innovation, and is good for businesses too, all these benefits are in addition to mitigating the destructive consequences of climate change.” Jeff concludes, “Especially in Florida, which is the third highest CO2 emitting state in the US and is ground zero for more destructive climate change induced weather events like hurricanes, dangerously warming ocean temperatures, and sea level rise, there is continued investment and awareness around the importance of carbon emission reduction. It’s a very exciting time with innovative developments constantly emerging to protect property, people and businesses, and we’re excited to be a part of this era of positive change through Aptamus.”  

www.osg.com